Michigan emergency manager law unconstitutional, NAACP lawsuit claims

May 13, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The Detroit branch NAACP is challenging the constitutionality of the state’s emergency manager law in federal court, claiming it unfairly targets African Americans and dilutes their voting rights.

In its lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court, the NAACP charged that the EM law “has had a disparate and discriminatory impact on voters of color.” According to the lawsuit, slightly more than half of the state’s 1.4 million African Americans are now ruled by emergency managers, compared with slightly more than 1% of white residents.

“This disparate and discriminatory impact on voters of color has resulted in a dilution of the value of the individual’s right to vote for locally elected officials of their choosing,” the lawsuit states.

The NAACP is asking the court to grant an injunction or issue a judgment stating that the emergency manager law violates the Equal Protection Clause because it “results in voter dilution” in communities where EMs have been placed.

Emergency managers have been appointed in Detroit, Pontiac, Allen Park, Benton Harbor, Ecorse and Flint, and in the Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights school districts.

The lawsuit is against Gov. Rick Snyder, who signed the EM law in December, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon and Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.

Snyder’s spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said the governor is confident in both the spirit and constitutionality of the emergency manager law.

“This law recognized and respected the will of voters while ensuring local officials have a strong voice in how a financial crisis in their community or school is remedied,” she said. “The communities or schools currently with an emergency manager or going through any part of state’s EM process are because of financial facts and crises, certainly notbecause the makeup of their populations.”